Roman Amphitheatre (Kom el-Dikka), Alexandria

How much are tickets to the Roman Amphitheatre?

Foreign visitors pay 200 EGP; students aged 24 or under with a valid ID pay 100 EGP, and children under 6 go free. These are the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities' official prices. The ticket covers the whole archaeological park: the theatre, the lecture halls, the baths and the open-air display of finds from the harbour floor.

The Villa of the Birds is the grey area. The Ministry lists a single ticket for Kom el-Dikka, but some guidebooks mention an extra fee for the villa. If the mosaics matter to you, ask at the ticket office whether they're included and carry a little cash just in case.

You can pay at the gate or buy ahead through the Ministry's official system, Egymonuments, or its Experience Egypt app. Online tickets are dated and non-refundable, but queues here are rare. Officially, Visa and Mastercard are accepted at ticket offices as well as online. Keep small Egyptian pound notes for taxis and tips. Phone photography is free.

Opening hours and the best time to go

The site is open daily from 9:00, with last entry at 16:00 and closing at 17:00. During Ramadan, last entry moves to 15:00. There is no weekly closing day, so it works for a Friday when some other sights in the city are shut.

Morning is best. The dig lies several metres below the street and has very little shade, so by midday in summer the marble throws back the heat. October to April is far more comfortable for wandering between the ruins.

Visitors usually aren't allowed onto the tiers, so the clearest view is from the steps at the top edge of the dig. Plan the theatre first and the villa last, when you're already at the lower end of the site.

Amphitheatre or theatre? What Kom el-Dikka actually is

Despite the name, it isn't an amphitheatre. Amphitheatres are oval arenas built for gladiators; this is a semicircle of 13 marble tiers, closer to a small odeon for music and speeches. It was built in the 4th century, and around AD 500 it was remodelled with a dome on columns and turned into a roofed hall. Locals and the Ministry still call it the Roman Amphitheatre, so look for that on signs and in ride-hailing apps.

The name Kom el-Dikka is usually translated as "mound of rubble" — kom means hill in Arabic. When the mound was cleared for new building, the Roman and Byzantine city turned up beneath it; the theatre was found in the 1960s. A Polish-Egyptian mission has been digging here since 1960, and the site opened as an archaeological park in 2017.

What to see at Kom el-Dikka

• The theatre — a horseshoe of white and grey marble with a front row of red granite. Look closely at the seats: Greek graffiti cheers the Blues and the Greens, the chariot-racing factions. Two tall red granite columns stand beside it.
• The lecture halls (auditoria) along the colonnaded street — around twenty small rooms with stepped benches for 20–30 listeners each, thought to be part of a late-antique school where up to 600 students studied between the 5th and 7th centuries.
• The Roman baths — a red-brick complex from the 4th century with furnaces, a pool and hot and cold rooms, the main bathhouse of the late Roman city.
• The cistern — a large above-ground water tank that fed the baths.
• The Villa of the Birds — a house of the 1st–3rd centuries whose floor has nine framed panels, each with a different bird: peacock, pigeon, quail, moorhen. They're among the few Alexandrian mosaics you can see where they were laid.
• Finds from the Eastern Harbour — a sphinx, statues and column pieces raised by underwater archaeologists, displayed in the open along the top of the dig.

Is the Roman Amphitheatre worth visiting?

Yes, if you're interested in Roman Alexandria — it's the most complete slice of the ancient city still above ground, and it's right in the centre between the station and the sea. The theatre, halls, baths and villa take about 45 minutes, or an hour if you read every panel.

Be realistic about scale: the theatre is small. If you've seen theatres in Turkey, Jordan or Italy, its size won't impress — what's special is that it's the only one in Egypt and that a late-antique campus survives next to it. It isn't worth crossing the city for on its own, but if you're in the centre or arriving by train, it's the best 45 minutes near the station.

Kom el-Dikka vs Pompey's Pillar vs Kom el-Shoqafa

Prices and hours are the Ministry's official figures. All three stop letting people in at 16:00, so start early: the catacombs and the pillar are next to each other, and the theatre is on your way back into the centre.

Historic Alexandria: compare and choose

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How to do it right

• Arriving by train from Cairo? Start here — the dig is opposite Misr Station, a 5-minute walk.
• For the full view of the 13 tiers and the columns in one frame, shoot from the steps at the top edge of the dig.
• Look for Greek letters scratched into the seats — 6th-century graffiti from chariot-racing fans.
• Ask about the Villa of the Birds when you buy your main ticket — walking back to the gate later is a hassle.
• Students aged 24 or under pay half with a valid ID — bring it.
• Finish by the sea: the Corniche is about 15 minutes' walk north through the centre.

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